Let it go

Oklahoma City Councilman Ed Shadid is convinced his cousin, the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid, didn’t die of an asthma attack while reporting in Syria this year but instead was killed. Ed Shadid raised this issue again last weekend at a convention in Washington, D.C., saying Anthony called his wife before leaving for Syria and told her that, “If anything happens to me, I want the world to know The New York Times killed me.” Shadid had alluded to the manner of death at his cousin’s memorial service, and again in April when Anthony was inducted into the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame. The councilman should heed the plea of Shadid’s widow, Nada Bakri. “I do not approve of and will not be a part of any public discussion of Anthony’s passing,” she said on her Twitter account. “It does nothing but sadden Anthony’s children to have to endure repeated public discussion of the circumstances of their father’s death.”

Thank you for joining our conversation on ScissorTales. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.